The Mowlem Theatre awarded £9,995 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund by Dorset Community Foundation.

13th April, Swanage, UK - The Mowlem Theatre, in collaboration with Diverse City, is pleased to announce they have been awarded £9,995 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund and Dorset Community Foundation, ensuring that creativity plays a vital role in local community celebrations for Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will ensure that thousands of people from communities all across England will have the opportunity to take part in exciting creative events – all in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee. From puppetry and story creation to making crowns, carnival and art trails, there will be a vast range of exciting activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to get involved in.

The Mowlem and Diverse City - a national performing arts company devoted to equity in the arts and based in Swanage - join together to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. SW!M celebrates the stories of a diverse and increasing number of women who swim in Swanage Bay all year round.

On 21st June, there will be two completely free performance events: ‘Swim Stories’ in The Mowlem Theatre at 6 pm based on conversations recorded and performed live by regular swimmers, followed at 7 pm by a choreographed story-telling swim performance in Swanage Bay. Audiences will be free to spectate from the ocean-facing bar or on the beach before finally joining performers in the water if they wish. There will also be an unveiling of a specially commissioned, permanent photographic image of Swanage Swimmers in the Mowlem foyer.

On 21st June, there will be two completely free performance events: ‘In our own words’ in The Mowlem Theatre at 6 pm based on conversations recorded and performed live by regular swimmers, followed at 6.45 pm by a choreographed story-telling swim performance ‘In our element’ in Swanage Bay. Audiences will be free to spectate from the ocean-facing bar and on the beach before joining performers by the water if they wish. There will also be an unveiling of a specially commissioned, permanent photographic image of Swanage Swimmers in the Mowlem foyer and an accompanying exhibition of individual swimmers. A short film is being made by local sward winning documentary filmmaker Steven Lake that follows the swimmers as they prepare for the event.

The Mowlem is also delighted to announce that the Swanage Library and Swanage Museum will also participate with photography exhibitions from the past and present and a specially installed ‘listening post’ in the library where you can listen to the Swim Stories in the months following the event.

Made possible thanks to National Lottery players and administered by UK Community Foundations on behalf of the Arts Council, the Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will support a huge range of projects throughout England. Forty-four community foundations have been awarding grants across the country.

“We are thrilled to have been awarded nearly £10,000 to support a local creative event celebrating Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We are equally delighted to be working with the incredibly talented team at Diverse City” Deborah Paige, Joint Chair of The Mowlem Institute Charity and Director of SW!M said.

“By telling these stories to the wider community, we believe we will inspire people to understand more about each others’ lives, encourage inter-generational links, create positive role models for younger people and inspire more people to take up swimming regardless of background” Claire Hodgson, Co-Artistic Director at Diverse City said.

The Mowlem Theatre is run by a board of Trustees and employs a small team of staff that operates the theatre, cinema and box office. Aiming to re-establish itself as the cultural hub of Swanage, it has a combined programme of over 200 movies each year and 60-100 nights of live theatre, comprising local schools and amateur societies and incoming professional productions. More information: City is a performing arts company based in Swanage, where social justice and culture meet. For the arts to reflect and shape society fairly, Diverse City believes all voices must be heard, and all audiences welcomed. More information: Henley, Chief Executive at Arts Council England, said, “The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund is a wonderful example of our ambition to give everyone the opportunity to participate in and experience the arts, culture and creativity – made possible thanks to National Lottery players. This June, we’ll see communities across England coming together to celebrate a historic milestone for this country. I’m excited to see these projects brought to life in villages, towns and cities across the country as our wonderfully creative communities celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”

Rosemary Macdonald, CEO of UK Community Foundations, said: “For community foundations, people and places are the priority, and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee is a unique opportunity for people to get together and celebrate in their communities. We are proud to have connected Arts Council England with local organisations whose imaginative and exciting projects and collaborations with professional artists will bring communities together to enjoy marking this milestone moment in our history.”

HM Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, having overtaken Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning monarch in 2015. Her reign has been marked by a commitment to public service, reflected by her extensive programme of engagements at home and abroad, and support for over 600 cultural organisations, charities, military associations, professional bodies and public service organisations.

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and deliver this vision. the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of the bodies administering the Government’s unprecedented £1.96 billion Culture Recovery Funds. Find out more at more information on Arts Council England, please contact:

UK Community Foundations is the membership organisation for the national network of 47 accredited community foundations across the UK. UKCF members inspire local philanthropy, bring communities together and fund great ideas. We have a deep understanding of the needs in our communities and the challenges and hopes that face them.

UKCF supports community foundations by providing advice, learning and resources, championing philanthropy at a national level, and developing national programmes that invest in local communities.